André Previn

Conductor, composer, and pianist André Previn has received many awards and honors for his outstanding musical accomplishments. He continues to redefine the possibilities in his extraordinary career. Mr. Previn is one of the most distinguished musicians of our time. He holds both the Austrian and German Cross of Merit, received the Kennedy Center’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998, was honored as Musical America’s “Musician of the Year” in 1999, and was knighted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 1996. He received the Glenn Gould Prize in Toronto in 2006. In May 2008, he was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award of the London Symphony Orchestra.

In 2010, Sir André Previn received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award, and has received ten other Grammy, most recently in 2005 for the recordings of his violin concerto “Anne-Sophie” and Bernstein’s Serenade featuring Anne-Sophie Mutter together with the Boston and London Symphony Orchestras.

A frequent guest with the world’s major orchestras – both in concert and on recordings – André Previn has worked frequently with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Vienna Philharmonic. In addition, he has held the chief artistic posts with such orchestras as the Houston Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, and Royal Philharmonic.

As a pianist, Mr. Previn enjoys recording and performing song recitals, chamber music and jazz. He performed recitals with Renée Fleming at Lincoln Center and Barbara Bonney at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Mr. Previn performs and teaches annually at the Tanglewood Music Center, where he works with student orchestras, conductors and composers, and enjoys coaching chamber music. He regularly gives chamber music concerts with the Emerson String Quartet, as well as with members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic.

André Previn has enjoyed a number of successes as a composer. His first opera, A Streetcar Named Desire, was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque. During the 1999-2000 season, Mr. Previn had new works premiered and recorded by the Vienna Philharmonic (Diversions) and Renée Fleming (The Giraffes Go To Hamburg and Three Songs of Emily Dickinson). Other recent compositions include a work for violin and piano (Tango, Song, and Dance) and his violin concerto “Anne-Sophie” commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. His double concerto for violin and double bass for Anne-Sophie Mutter and Roman Patkoló was premiered by the Boston Symphony in April 2007.

In March 2008, the Pittsburgh Symphony premiered Mr. Previn’s harp concerto under his direction. The Vienna Philharmonic gave its European premiere in 2009. His new work, Owls, was premiered under his direction by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in October 2008. Mr. Previn’s second opera, Brief Encounter, a commission from the Houston Grand Opera, was premiered in Houston in May 2009. Also in 2009, his double concerto for violin and viola, written for Anne-Sophie Mutter and Yuri Bashmet, had its premiere in New York. Mr. Previn has also composed a cello sonata for Yo-Yo Ma, a piano concerto for Vladimir Ashkenazy and songs for mezzo-soprano Janet Baker and soprano Barbara Bonney.

On the occasion of André Previn's 80th birthday, Carnegie Hall presented four concerts in the spring of 2009: a performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra for which he both conducted and performed as soloist, a performance by the Previn Jazz Trio, an evening of his compositions by the Orchestra of St. Luke’s with Anne-Sophie Mutter and Renée Fleming, and a chamber music concert with Anne-Sophie Mutter, Lynn Harrell, and Mr. Previn at the piano, featuring the world premiere of his new trio. Other highlights included concerts with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra with Anne-Sophie Mutter, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Accademia Nazionale de Santa Cecilia and concerts in Tanglewood with the Boston Symphony.